


birthday party

by PaintedVanilla (orphan_account)



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bad Parenting, Birthday, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-19
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-02-16 22:28:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13063479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/PaintedVanilla
Summary: “I don’t have a birthday party.” Dolley says.





	birthday party

Dolley’s first grade class sings her happy birthday, which is the first time that’s ever happened to her. She’s heard it sung before, of course; everyone in her kindergarten class invited her to their birthday parties and she heard it sung there. She’s never had her own birthday party, mostly because she’s never had any friends, and classes don’t normally sing happy birthday to the rest of the students. Dolley just happened to mention it, and the boy sitting across from her decided to start singing, and the rest of the class decided to join in. The teacher doesn’t look very happy about the class erupting in song during quiet reading time, since after the song is over the kids don’t exactly go back to being quiet.

It takes almost ten minutes to get the class quiet again, and of course by then quiet reading time is over and it’s time to talk about something else, so the kids never do go back to being quiet.

“Are you going to invite me to your birthday party?” Eliza Schuyler asks Dolley as they walk to the carpet to sit down.

“I don’t have a birthday party.” Dolley says, and Eliza frowns, like that’s some sort of excuse.

At the end of the day, Dolley apologizes to her teacher for making everybody sing during quiet reading time, even though the teacher has already forgotten about it. She rides the bus home and when she gets to her apartment she does her homework and then she lays on her bed and waits for her parents to come home.

They go out to dinner, and they let Dolley pick where she wants to go. She picks the same restaurant she picked last year. Dolley knows which restaurants her parents don’t like because they make faces at her when she asks to go there, and she wouldn’t want to make her parents eat somewhere they don’t like. Dolley also knows her parents make faces at her when she orders any food that costs any double digit number, so Dolley picks the food on the menu that costs the smallest number.

“My class sang to me today.” Dolley tells her parents.

“That’s nice.” her mom says.

“Except I don’t think the teacher thought it was nice because it was supposed to be quiet reading time.” Dolley continues.

“Why did you ask them to sing during quiet reading time?” Her dad asks.

“I didn’t ask.” Dolley says, “Andrew found out it was my birthday and he started singing and then everyone started singing.”

They give her a look like they don’t believe her. Then, her dad says, “Maybe you shouldn’t have told Andrew it was your birthday.”

Dolley can’t argue with that; she shouldn’t have told Andrew it was her birthday, because then the teacher wouldn’t have been upset and quiet reading time would have stayed quiet.

Dolley taps her hands on the table, “Can I have a birthday party?”

Her parents stare at her. “Why do you want a birthday party?” Her mom asks.

“Everyone in my class has a birthday party.” Dolley tells them.

“If everyone in your class jumped off a bridge, would you do it, too?” Her dad asks.

“No.” Dolley tells him.

“How much money do you think a birthday party costs?” Her mom asks.

Dolley pauses, “I didn’t think about money.”

“You should always think about money.” Her mom says, “You don’t need a birthday party.”

“But I have an idea - ” Dolley tries to say.

“You don’t need one,” her mom continues, “and we don’t get things we don’t need.”

“But what if I just had everyone in my class at our apartment and we played together and there wouldn’t have to be any food or cake or decorations or anything so we wouldn’t have to spend money on it?” Dolley says as quickly as she can.

“Do you want to clean the apartment to have twenty people over?” Her dad asks, “Do you want to clean the apartment after twenty people leave?” He looks at his wife, “I’m not going to clean it. Are you going to clean it, Mary?” Dolley’s mom shakes her head, and her dad looks back at her, “Then who’s going to clean it?”

“Me.” Dolley says.

“Bold words for someone who couldn’t finish doing the dishes.” her mom says.

“I’m not tall enough to reach everything in the sink.” Dolley tries to argue.

“Then you’re not tall enough to reach half the apartment, and we’re not going to help you, so you _can’t_ clean the whole house.” Her dad argues back, “So no birthday party. End of discussion.”

Dolley hesitates to continue the discussion, because her dad said _end_ of discussion, but finally she asks, “What if a birthday party was my present?”

Both her parents sigh, clearly aggravated that she’s still trying to argue her case. Her mom tells her, “Dolley, we’re already out to dinner, and we already bought you a present. That’s _two_ presents.”

“Which at this point is already two more than you deserve.” Her dad adds, “So tell us, what makes you think you deserve _three_ presents after the behavior you have displayed here tonight?”

Dolley opens her mouth, then closes it and looks down and taps her hands on the table, “I guess I don’t.” she says.

“You guess?” Her mom asks.

“I don’t.” Dolley corrects herself.


End file.
